When I first came to North America, one of the birds that most struck my fancy was the red-winged blackbird. They are often seen in the company of yellow-headed blackbirds, and I found them captivating as we do not have as many colorful birds in Europe. I sat and watched as they congregated around a bird feeder.

In the years that followed, I did a lot of birdwatching. Late one afternoon while out in the marshes, several red-winged blackbirds came to roost for the night on the cattails. I watched them as they moved from plant to plant searching for the perfect spot, displaying their incredibly red shoulders.

I wanted to capture these moments in my painting, as well as the cotton-like look of cattails in the late summer. The evening sunlight, penetrating the oncoming mist on the marshes, turned the sky near the horizon yellow. This effect brought harmony to the black and red of the birds when mixed with the colors of the cattails.